Geary Bus Plan Gets First Public Review

By Dmitry Kiper

A new bus system proposed for Geary Boulevard promises to improve service for riders on the Muni #38 bus line, but some residents and small-business owners remain skeptical.

David Heller, president of the Greater Geary Boulevard Merchants and Property Owners Association, is not convinced the plan is the best way to improve bus service.

"There is so much technology that can be used now to improve the bus system," Heller said, "but it's not being used."

The Geary Boulevard bus route carries about 50,000 riders daily and runs through the Richmond District, Western Addition, Japantown, Tenderloin and Downtown. According to the SF County Transportation Authority (TA), it is among the busiest bus corridors on the west coast.

The Transportation Authority, along with the SF Department of Parking and Traffic, Muni, SF Planning Department and SF Department of Public Works, has been conducting a Geary Corridor Bus Rapid Transit Study to improve the Geary bus line since the end of last year.

On Saturday, April 16, the TA held the last of three public workshops in the Richmond District to discuss the preliminary findings of the study and get feedback from neighbors.

The first half-hour of the workshop was an open house. Residents and members of the press had a chance to mingle with public officials and private consultants and read the half-a-dozen-or-so large posters, which showed the initial findings of the study-in-progress. After the open house, city officials took turns speaking.  

"We're here to listen to you," said TA Senior Transportation Planner Julie Kirschbaum. "This is the first time we're going to the public with this project."

The flaws of the Geary #38 line were demonstrated verbally and pictorially and an alternative plan was proposed. According to the presenters, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) has been successful in several North American cities and has significant advantages over the old system.     

The Geary bus is slow - almost twice as slow as a car. The average speed of a car on Geary is 17 mph, whereas the average speed of the #38 bus is 7 mph and for the #38L it is 9 mph. during peak hours. The bus spends 51 percent of its time in traffic, 20 percent of its time delayed due to a signal, 17 percent of its time loading and unloading passengers and 7 percent of its time merging with traffic.

Bus Rapid Transit promises to improve service on Geary, TA representatives say, by creating a more efficient service: Giving the bus its own traffic lane and signal priority at red lights would lead to less time stuck in traffic and behind traffic signals and would eliminate merging. Providing real-time information about the next bus, improving fare collection (with ticket vending machines at certain stops) and low-floor buses with wide doors and aisles would lead to faster boarding. The design of other improvements, such as improved bus stops, crosswalks, countdown signals and improved lighting, is also being considered.

Whether the bus lanes should be on the side like they are now or in the middle of the boulevard was one of the major topics of discussion at the workshop. The plan calls for the BRT system to be "light-rail ready" (with infrastructure convertible to a light-rail system), meaning a final design will likely have dedicated transit lanes in the middle of the street. 

After the presentation, several TA officials took questions from the audience. Many pertained to issues that need to be addressed, like parking, overcrowding on buses, finding new money to purchase new buses, safety and vehicle traffic flow.

Twenty percent of the funding for the Geary BRT - the cost is estimated to be in the $175 to $200 million range - will come from Proposition K (approved in November, 2003), which will continue to collect a half-cent sales tax until 2033. This raises approximately $60 million a year for maintaining and expanding existing transportation systems.

"We don't have a funding plan yet," admitted TA Deputy Director of Planning Tilly Chang.

The funding situation could become concrete by spring 2006. Chang is hopeful the federal government will provide the additional 80 percent of the funding necessary for the project. Money may also come from private sources.          

The BRT will be designed for new low-floor buses, but there is, according to Chang, "no plan to buy new buses." Therefore, if built, the new transportation system would initially have to operate with old buses. Other BRT benefits, such as signal priority, bus-only lanes and real-time bus information, will be available.

"You can't have everything at once," Chang said.

If the buses have their own lanes in the middle of the street, there will be two eight-foot-wide passenger islands in the middle of the street (one for each direction of traffic) and some left turns will likely be allowed: The buses will have their own traffic signals.

Crowding is a major issue for most peak-time riders. Currently, there are no plans to purchase more buses but Chang says buses will run faster - there will be up to a 30 percent reduction in travel time - so more of them will get back in the rotation more quickly.

Since it will take at least five years to complete the project, Geary Boulevard traffic and commerce will be impacted, but Chang insists that San Francisco has several advantages that will minimize the impact - the City's traffic management experience, the City's grid system and the fact that construction will be facilitated in phases.

Merchants Have Concerns
Heller is not optimistic that the process will go smoothly and is concerned that the livelihoods of local merchants will be affected. He argues that 60 percent of parking will be lost between 14th and 25th avenues, or what he calls "the heart of the Outer Richmond," because cars will have to park parallel to the curb (as opposed to diagonally) to create space for an additional traffic lane. If an additional lane of traffic were not created in the plan, there would be one lane in each direction serving vehicular traffic on Outer Geary.

"We will look at replacing diagonal parking with parallel parking," Kirschbaum said. "(If parallel parking is decided upon) we would look for opportunities to offset the parking loss with other on-street parking strategies. Adding perpendicular or diagonal parking (on the avenues), for example. We have not gotten to the design phase."

As president of the Geary Boulevard Merchants Association, Heller is concerned with the impact construction may have on Geary businesses: Some merchants may not renew their leases and some may even go out of business.

Real-time bus information and signal priority for buses at traffic signals can both be implemented without building the entire BRT system, Heller said. If no parking is allowed on the southern side of Geary from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and on the northern side from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., buses and cars will have an extra lane available during rush hours.

He is also concerned about the cost of the project.

"We don't have the money to do this now," Heller said. "Show me the money."

A final report concerning the BRT system is not due until spring of 2006. Two more public workshops are scheduled - one for September and one for the winter of next year.

For more information or to receive workshop announcements, visit the Web site at www.GearyBRT.org or call Kirschbaum at 522-4830.